How to dress down a suit - 5 tips

How to dress down a suit? Or how to make your daily business attire a bit more casual? These are questions I know many young as well as older guys are dealing with. Here you can find five simple tips to to try and consider when you are thinking about making your every day business attire a bit more casual. Or you just want to make your outfits more versatile.

1) Go for a patterned fabric

If you only have one suit that should be dark blue made of solid light weight wool. To spice up your rotation you may want to consider solid medium gray, navy blue or charcoal gray wool fabrics with restrained patterns such as houndstooth or small checks. If you want to go full casual, try tweed. However, if you do not have more than three or four suits in daily use, try to avoid too bold and memorable patterns. And if you want to be more casual, forget chalk stripes and pinstriped suits.

2) Go for ties made from textured fabrics

The standard choice for guys dressing up for a business meeting is to go with a smooth silk tie. One easy way to variate your outfit is to choose a tie with stronger and more intense texture. Try for example cashmere, knit ties, shantung, or raw silk to bring some volatility and casualness to your attire.

3) Try soft collar shirts

I'm not really fond of guys wearing suits without ties. If you decide to go for that look there are certain points you need to take care of. First of all make sure your suit is casual enough to be worn without a tie. That means features such as patch pockets, soft shoulders and light weight construction. But as if not even more important as the cut and details of the suit are the details of the shirt. Collar in particular. So put your money in shirts that feature soft collars. This will make your shirts much more versatile and appropriate to be worn with a suit even without a tie.

4) Combine your suit with a roll neck sweater

My personal favorite way of dressing down a suit during winter season. A well-fitting, light merino wool roll neck sweater in light gray or burgundy for example is a perfect match to your blue or dark gray suit.

5) Wear suits as separates

Always remember that suit is not a single piece of clothing. If you choose your suit right you have in fact two separate pieces that can be worn independently and still look good. One easy to way to dress down your suit is to replace your suit trousers with odd trousers such as flannel or cotton slacks.